MonarchX;n10950680 said:
CascadeShadowFadeTreshold=0.1
CascadeShadowMapSize=8192
CascadeShadowQuality=6
CascadeShadowDistanceScale0=16
CascadeShadowDistanceScale1=8
CascadeShadowDistanceScale2=4
CascadeShadowDistanceScale3=2
or at least
CascadeShadowFadeTreshold=0.1
CascadeShadowMapSize=6144
CascadeShadowQuality=6
CascadeShadowDistanceScale0=8
CascadeShadowDistanceScale1=4
CascadeShadowDistanceScale2=3
CascadeShadowDistanceScale3=2
is what I prefer, but each level has its own shadow settings (w2s files) and the settings above look good in Novigrad/Velen, but in Kaer Morhen you would get blocky shadows. I get sub-40fps with all the mods and 8192 resolution for cascade shadows on my GTX 1080 Ti rig @ 1080p...
Why CSDS0 at 16? Isn't that overkill, considering that 4 is already like 20 meters away from Geralt. 8 would certainly be enough, and I noticed that shadows still look good if you have 8K shadow resolution and the distance set to 4. 8 might be fine, I don't know, but I highly doubt 16 will still be sharp. Shadows look ok enough at 4K with distance set to 4, but it you can already see quite a bit of shimmering, especially on character shadows and small foliage shadows (thin twigs, etc.).
How about FadeTreshold? That controls all shadows and how far they're drawn, did I get that right?
I wish I knew what CSQuality exactly does. "Quality" could mean different things. I tested it from 1 to 6 and I didn't really see a difference. Maybe I was testing it on the wrong kind of shadows. I looked for shadows on the ground of bushes and trees. There is a difference in the nVidia comparison shots, but in those shots CSQuality at 4 actually looked worse than 1 in my opinion. So CSQuality is the one variable that confuses me a bit.
@narrn001
I think you got a good list going on there, but I would add to that:
-Alternate Aard Water Ripple Effect (doesn't change anything visually, it just adds the water ripple effect for the 360° Aard Blast).
-Animals Hairworks Wind Effect (look for "wind" on nexus, there's like two mods that change wind, then look for the one that has a file that adds wind for animals; highly recommend it)
-Igni and Yrden Lightsource (Igni and Yrden cast light)
I would also rather stick to only Better FX and ditch Improved Sign Effects. ISE looks a bit overblown, but that's not really the issue. My problem with that mod is that it adds a weird audio distortion bug to Igni and Aard. The volume of the sounds is considerably higher, and the sounds are distorted. I don't know what causes the distortion (maybe the mod just plays the sound effect multiple times at the same time, or maybe it's the volume that blows out all the detail of the sound fx). Better FX is a neat mod. A signs-only version was recently uploaded, if you don't want all the other changes that mod provides.
I agree with MonarchX on Compilation. The rain part of that mod doesn't impress me too much. It would look good I think if there was more of it, but as it is now, vanilla looks more convincing to me.